WIFE TESTIFIES IN ARMY ABUSE TRIAL

Michael Kilian, Washington BureauCHICAGO TRIBUNE

The wife of former Sergeant Major of the Army Eugene McKinney testified Tuesday that she had no knowledge of any alleged sexual misbehavior until charges against her husband were aired in the news media a year ago.

Appearing as the first defense witness in McKinney's sexual misconduct court-martial, Wilhemina McKinney denied prosecution assertions that her husband is a compulsive womanizer who used his position to make sexual demands of military women.

Mrs. McKinney depicted her husband of 26 years as a faithful man devoted to his soldiers and a leader who took an interest in their personal lives and problems regardless of gender.

She and her husband are a "team," she said, who had only "grown closer" after the accidental death of their son and only child, Zuberi.

At least two of the six military women who have accused the Army's one-time top enlisted man of sexual abuse and harassment have testified that McKinney used his son's death to elicit sympathy in an effort to seduce them.

Mrs. McKinney, who has known her husband since childhood, acknowledged under cross-examination that their marriage "had problems," but attributed them to the strains of military life and not infidelity.

She has been with McKinney throughout the court-martial and pretrial proceedings.

She noted that McKinney was away from home the first Mother's Day after their son's death and that she spent that day with former Sgt. Maj. Brenda Hoster, who is now his chief accuser.

"We were friends," said Mrs. McKinney. "I had really grown to like Brenda."

If convicted, McKinney faces as much as 55 1/2 years in prison, a dishonorable discharge and loss of retirement benefits. He is charged with 19 counts of sexual misconduct and abuse of authority.

Hoster and five other women, including a female Army major, have accused McKinney of trying to compel them to have sex with him.

One married female sergeant has charged she was coerced to have sexual intercourse with him when she was seven months pregnant.

McKinney's defense has claimed the Army is using the court-martial as a show trial to demonstrate the toughness of its crackdown on sexual harassment and abuse after the Aberdeen training center sex scandals of 1996.

Hoster, who was McKinney's public relations assistant, set his prosecution in motion by going public with her accusations after McKinney was appointed to a special top-level commission investigating sexual misconduct in the Army.

The defense has characterized McKinney's accusers as women seeking revenge or reward.

Another defense witness testifying Tuesday, retired Sgt. Maj. Michael Levin, who served as McKinney's chief staff aide, said Hoster resented McKinney's dissatisfaction with her work and the frequent reprimands she received from him because of it.

Levin claimed she told him: "I can't take it anymore. Everything I do is wrong" and retired from the service because of the pressure.

Hoster has claimed she retired because superior officers refused to respond to her complaints about McKinney's sexual harassment, though she admitted she remained friendly with him and his family afterward.

McKinney is black and his six women accusers are white. The defense failed to get the charges dropped on grounds of racial discrimination and double standards of sexual misconduct punishment for officers and enlisted ranks.

McKinney's lawyers have been building a case attacking the credibility of the six women.

Levin testified that one of them, Sgt. Christine Roy, had actively sought a job on McKinney's staff and was angry at being rejected by him.

Lt. Col. Michael Child, the chief Army prosecutor, said during cross examination that McKinney had made a least 20 personal telephone calls to Roy's home.